Prison Bars
by Barabbus
Summary: Sirius Black is locked in Azkaban. He's innocent. His best friend is dead. He'll never have revenge... or will he? Oneshot. Please R&R!


**This is another oneshot, but I may continue if anyone wants me to. So... let me know!**

Sitting. I was sitting. There really wasn't much else to do, was there, as this was the wizard prison. Locked up with no escape. I would be stuck in this hellhole for the rest of my life, and I'd done nothing wrong. But I would still die in here. Dementors don't care what you've done, as long as you have memories they can suck out of you.

Murdered. My best friend and his wife were murdered. I can't believe it, even after all of these years have passed. He killed them. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't think of the Potters, when I don't wonder how things would be if they were still alive. We'd be laughing, and their son would be playing in the afternoon sun. Sun. I hadn't seen daylight in so long. I hadn't seen anything apart from bricks and bars and screaming men. I'd smelled nothing but stale food, ocean waves and the decay of the bodies buried so near the fortress. How I longed to escape.

Framed. I'd been framed by that bastard Pettigrew, the rat who'd betrayed my friends and escaped. Peter Pettigrew. He was the only one who knew, the only one who would have done such a thing. And I'd thought he was our friend for all those years. We were wrong, James and I, but it wouldn't matter to James. It couldn't matter. James was under six feet of dirt with nothing but his bones left. He could never think that anything mattered now. Because of Peter.

Rage. I felt rage. I wanted the same thing I'd wanted years ago, wanted to rip him apart, wanted to make him pay for what he'd done. But he'd framed me. And then he ran. How dare he even say that I had betrayed them? I would have died before letting them die. And their son... What had become of innocent Harry Potter? Just the thought of him being without a family was maddening. I tried not to think about it so much, but sometimes thinking is inevitable.

But I was innocent. And that was enough to keep me alive, enough to keep me sane. But it wasn't enough to get me what I needed. I needed revenge. And I would have it.

The Minister came to inspect the prison. Or to make sure the conditions were inhumane enough. Not that it mattered. He still had his newspaper, and on it... No, it couldn't be, it just couldn't! On the front page was a rat, and he looked like, if I remembered accurately, Peter Pettigrew! _No, Sirius, we mustn't get our hopes up. The dementors will take that like they've taken everything else. But it does look like him. Get the paper, Padfoot, surely he's too thick to know if you're lying..._

"Minister, might I be able to see that newspaper?"

His jaw dropped when he heard me talk so easily. "W-what did you say?"

"The paper. I'd like to see it, once you're finished. I miss the crossword."

"Oh. Yes, well, I suppose, well... Have it."

I smiled in response, trying not to laugh at his nearly frightened expression. "Thank you."

I scanned the front page when he left. There was Peter on a wizard boy's shoulder, and he was to return to Hogwarts with the boy, return to the castle where Harry Potter would be staying...

I had to warn him! I had to catch Peter! I had to... I had to escape! There wasn't much time...

Food. I was so hungry. And they were bringing my food, damn them, the wretched creatures that kept me here. But I don't think they fed me enough. I was thinner than I had been before I was captured, and there was most certainly no way to excercise in the high-security cell the Ministry had so _generously _provided for me. But for once, that worked to my advantage.

_It's time to use the things you developed when James and Remus were still with you. You can do this, Padfoot. Maybe it'll feel odd without your best friends to make you laugh, but you can do this. Do it for Harry. Do it for Lily, for Remus, for James..._

I felt a physical change, but I was accustomed to it even after so many years of being magically dormant. I simply slipped through the bars. I was no longer Sirius Black. I was Padfoot, the black dog. The black, starving dog. But I could eat soon enough.

I ran through the fortress, pushing against the bars of the cells so that no dementor would notice me. None of the prisoners noticed. They noticed nothing. They were beyond all rationality. Perhaps I was too.

I turned one last time to look at the prison. Never again would I set foot in such a place. I escaped the prison walls by jumping into the cold oblivion of the sea, letting it carry me to my destiny.


End file.
